Dogs and Cats living together? Kudos from me to H|OCP?

[pHaestus]

Well I had a lot of bad things to say about HardOCP standing up for NVIDIA over the 3dmark03 fiasco a few weeks back. I still don't know how anyone could claim that the manipulation of clip planes wasn't cheating. But nonetheless, I guess the comments that I made about Kyle and Co being paid off by NVIDIA were probably not accurate. I was directed to this article:

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NDQ0LDI=

And lo and behold HardOCP actually does some nice work looking at the GF FX5200 and 5600 drivers and how they affect image quality. Here's a quote:

"Placing all of the new features aside, how on earth can anyone look at a card whose image quality must be lowered to remain competitive and declare it "cinematic"? Furthermore, it is a bit alarming to see NVIDIA claim that gamers will be "experiencing cinematic graphics the way it’s meant to be played" with their $79 card.

Although NVIDIA has taken two steps forward in terms of features and functionality, they have seemingly taken a step backwards for both image quality and performance. As we score things, that would make NVIDIA's current position stagnant at best. Should the "cinematic computing era" be taking place, it is happening with ATI's product line, as we have seen first hand that the current GeForceFX product line simply cannot compete with ATI products released last year. "


Ok so I was wrong about that. And then I took a look at the Corsair watercooling kit they posted, and it was actually a quite solid and interesting read.

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NDUx

Steve took the kit apart and got rid of 90 degree elbows, a restrictive flowmeter, and optimized the system's flow. He found that that improved performance markedly. I am glad to see that someone other than myself appreciates the free performance boost that can come from paying attention to proper system plumbing and choice of fittings.

So I know that H|OCP bashing is pretty popular but I found both of those articles to be quite well done and worth a read.

[bigben2k]

WOW! Steve really picked it apart! Nice work!

I can't believe Corsair used an aluminium rad!

The conversion to a 3/8" ID line was "spot on".

Removing the flow sensor was a good move.

[Lmandrake]

They still never met an Abit product they didn't like, even when the owners of the first two or three revisions of some Abit boards assume that all the customers are beta testers.............

[Joe]

Like pH, I can appreciate a good quality review when it’s written. While I don’t share pH's level of amazement with the reviews, I do agree they are more solid and well done than previous works the wonder duo have done in the past.

I mean there was a time where I had lots of respect for Kyle and clan, but times have changed and 2 reviews wont change my thoughts that they are everything that has been said here before. Kyle and Steve at one point a couple years ago helped me out quite a bit, and I still thank them for it... but just as they claim to call it as they see it... so do I.

Kudo's to the kids for getting it right for once, maybe its a sign of things to come, or just some flawed mistake that skipped past the "hype" machine accidentally. Also notice that the first review was wrote by a 3rd party not Kyle or Steve who have been the targets of past comments.